Wed 17th May at 6:45pm
Help grow beautiful flowers to support pollinators and biodiversity
Read moreWed 26th Apr at 6:45pm
Windsor and Maidenhead Report written by Jess Smith
10 GoodGymers met at Homebase car park ready for their session helping Maidenhead Athletics Club (MAC) hop, skip and jump into the summer season by sprucing up their track.
We welcomed newcomer Alice for her first session and Amy 'long-jumped' straight in to brief the group on the evening's plan - a walk/run to the MAC track, a track session with Head Coach Leila (and taskowner) and then onto the planned tasks.
The group split with walkers Clara, Rachel, Kate, Jen and Jess heading straight off and runners Alice, Amy, Amy, Georgeta and Juli doing a dynamic stretching session before making their way to the track too.
Once at the track Leila set the team an interval training challenge consisting of alternating 'easy' and 'hard' sections with a handy air horn to keep everyone in check! 20 minutes and many laps of the track later the team had given it a great 'shot-put' and some 'sprint' finshes had even been on show!
The team were now ready to be 'javelined' into the list of jobs Leila had. This consisted of edging and sweeping along the long jump track, raking the erroneous grass left from the recent mowing session, and raking over the long jump sandpit. The list was no 'hurdle' for the team and the long jump area was looking spick and span in no time with lots of 'discus-ions' about athletics, running, the weather and grass houses!
Amy even had time to make a GoodGym grass motif out of the edging waste which of course we all had an obligatory photo round! Another photo oppotunity could not be missed on the walk home under a beautiful blossom tree!
Wed 26th Apr at 10:47pm
Well done everyone! And thanks for helping me ferry all the kit from the MAC 10 back to my car xx
Thu 27th Apr at 9:28am
Great work and report! I LOVE that photo under the blossom tree - that should go as a masthead on all things GG 😁
Fri 7th Apr at 9:00am
Windsor and Maidenhead Report written by Amy L (she/her)
Well done to everyone who helped out at the Maidenhead Easter Ten race. The sun shone, we welcomed GoodGym Portsmouth to Maidenhead, we had a great time helping out, and we had lots of positive comments and smiles from runners.
Sheila, Diya and Kanika joined me in cycling to the water station at mile 6. We did important jobs like decorating the hedge with bunting and making the GoodGym logo out of water cups, and even more important jobs like cheering on and hydrating lots of runners and picking up all the cups and other litter.
Mark was also on water duty, joining Maidenhead's Running Sisters (including our Gillian!) on their busy station, which supports runners at miles 1, 3 and 9. Welcome to Maidenhead Mark! We can't promise to send our MP to greet you every time but we might be able to conjure up Gillian again .
Kelley and Kate were on marshal duty. Kelley saved the day by heroically stepping into the lead marshal role at the last minute, and Kate did whatever her big sister Jen told her to do, since Jen (also a GoodGymer) was the Race Director.
Eggcellent work team!
Wednesday 5th April
Kate Oswald completed 5 good deeds with GoodGym.
Kate is a now a pretty committed GoodGym runner. They've just run to do good for the fifth time
Wed 5th Apr at 6:45pm
Windsor and Maidenhead Report written by Amy L (she/her)
Sounds like a bunch of kids playing games at pre-school? Well, not quite, but I was beaming like a happy child this evening as we headed to Braywick Heath Nursery. I was super excited to have a big group of GoodGymers signed up and to be helping this local charity for the first time.
Most plant nurseries just nurture plants, but Braywick Heath nurtures people too, offering employment, training and work experience for people with special educational needs and disabilities. We hope this session will be the first of many with this fantastic charity.
The task for the evening was to shift a huge pile of old wooden planks through a polytunnel and into a skip. The charity have expansion plans but lots of debris to clear and materials to move first.
We had a warm up and safety briefing and then, wary of rusty nails and splinters, we dived in. Picking up the planks felt like a game of pick up sticks or Kerplunk, whilst putting them into the skip was like Tetris. Fun!
I couldn't believe how quickly the pile started to disappear. We were nailing it! Nothing rusty about this team. Within half an hour, wood you believe we had shifted the lot. With help from task owner Kit we had also won our game of Tetris, creating the most neatly packed skip I have ever seen.
With time to spare, we decided to shift another pile through the polytunnel so it would be ready to fill the next skip. Kit would have been happy for us to head off early, but you might say we had tunnel vision for making as much impact as possible.
We finished at the task by taking our impressive 'after photo'. Kit gave us a lovely heartfelt thank you and we left with a skip in our step.
Now it was time for the run/walk part of our session. We normally do some of this pre-task and some post-task, but we decided to save it all for the end today to make the most of the light at the Nursery. This also helped out Kelley, Kate, Jess, Sara and Jen, who had to dash early.
Consensus amongst the remaining team was for a walk/run, so we set off with head torches for a 3km lap of the parkrun loop, alternating 1 minute running with 1 minute walking. As ever, it was great to get the heart pumping, have a natter, and escape into nature.
There's more fun to be had at the Nursery next week. Our Area Activator and Run Leaders are away, so it will be a Community Mission rather than a Group Run. All details and sign up by clicking here.
Thu 6th Apr at 8:45am
Great report Amy, thanks for a fun filled evening xx
Thu 6th Apr at 1:44pm
Wow that's an awesome job done team! I love the big grins on everyone!
Wed 26th Apr at 6:45pm
Help at our local running club, and get a bonus running or walking track session too!
Read moreWed 5th Apr at 6:45pm
Help this amazing social enterprise to tidy up and prepare for expansion
Read moreWed 29th Mar at 6:45pm
Windsor and Maidenhead Report written by Amy L (she/her)
Awesome to see such a big group out despite horrible weather and especially great to meet Amy, who was GoodGyming for the first time.
As we chatted and warmed up outside Coop the rain got steadily heavier and heavier, and we wondered whether we were completely mad to be contemplating staying outside for a run or walk and pothole filling session.
We were drenched within minutes of setting off, but we soon got the blood pumping and endorphins flowing and there were plenty of smiles as we powered through our 'meet and retreat' session at Sandringham Rd.
By the time we arrived at Holyport FC the U14s game looked to have been rained off, but we couldn't get any wetter, so why not grab some tools and spend half an hour filling potholes (aka puddles)!? I challenged everyone to keep track of how many wheelbarrows worth of shingle we shifted, but we soon lost count. Special mentions to Kate, who wrestled lots of brambles out of the shingle pile and Diya, who did a great job loosening the shingle with a fork.
In 30 minutes we made a significant dent in the shingle heap, reduced the potholes along a decent stretch of the lane, had lots of laughs and provided some entertainment for a family whose dining room provided a view of our shenanigans.
It was now time to find some shelter in the boardroom, eat some cookies, and get cracking on our second (surprise!) task for the evening....making Easter decorations for Clewer Green first School. I gave everyone an egg made of card and we had a lovely creative time using paint sticks and crayons to draw zig zags, bunnies and flowers. The eggs will be strung together as a garland to help decorate the school for their Bunny Bingo fundraiser.
All in all, we had an eggcellent time despite the wet. Huge thanks to Lou for inviting us to the club for a pothole lotta fun and laughs, and for treating us to the cookies. Well done team on a cracking evening!
Thu 30th Mar at 11:11am
When does a little drizzle stop this lot? Well done everyone!
Thu 30th Mar at 11:12am
And welcome Amy. No not you Amy. The new Amy!
Mon 3rd Apr at 3:36pm
Thank you Kanika :)
Wednesday 22nd March
Kate Oswald been cheered 10 times.
GoodGymers have noticed what Kate has done and have cheered her 10 times. We doff our caps to you Kate.
Wed 22nd Mar at 6:45pm
Windsor and Maidenhead Report written by Amy L (she/her)
Well done to the super six, who came out GoodGyming this evening. Easter is a-coming, so this evening's task was to make like the Easter bunny and do a quick hop around town, bringing potential fun to families. Sadly we didn't have any chocolate eggs - instead our treats were some leaflets to tell everyone about the Easter Family Fun Day, which Maidenhead Bridge Rotary are organising in Grenfell Park on Easter Saturday (and where there will no doubt be chocolate - yay!)
We warmed up at Grenfell Park, paired up and then headed into the night, armed with the leaflets and wary of yappy dogs and snappy letterboxes. We divided and conquered and in 40 minutes we had ticked off Boyn Valley Road, which was our target route. I had also enjoyed a lovely run with Juli and heard lots about her antipodean adventure - albeit piecemeal in between jogs to letterboxes.
This was only Kate's first group run, but like magic she got our task owner on the phone and he suggested we tackle Wootton Way in the remaining time. By now we were at the wrong end of the road for Wootton Way, but we decided to go for it anyway. Juli and I ran ahead to tackle the top end and the rest of the group walked to the bottom. We re-convened about halfway up, before finishing the job together and then looping back to the start. I Wootton have thought we'd cover so much ground, but we did it!
On the way back we passed previous GoodGym task locations where we had painted, planted bulbs, litter picked, weeded, cleared a path and more - happy memories! Back at Grenfell Park we finished with a stretch, with a little extra focus on stiff necks, shoulders and backs. And relax.....
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